Saturday, December 17, 2016

It would surprise a visitor and some residents may not
even be aware, that the city of Chennai houses a deer park in the middle. It is the Guindy National park, established
in 1976 ranging 2.82 Km2. The park is an extension of the grounds surrounding
Raj Bhavan, formerly known as the ‘Guindy Lodge’, the official residence of the
Governor of Tamil Nadu. The National
park has various vegetation zones mainly tropical dry evergreen flora and is
home to spotted deer, black bucks and
many other animals too. Cyclone Vardahwrecked
havoc on the green lung of the city, felling trees everywhere. Reports suggest that the Vandalur Zoo and the
Guindy National Park present a picture of devastation with hundreds of trees
uprooted inside.

Miles away, a white-tailed
deer that went from being a minor celebrity in Harlem to a cause célèbre after
its capture – is in the midst of some not so happy ending !

The man facing criticism is
- Bill de Blasio, the 109th mayor of New York City. From 2010 to 2013, he
held the citywide office of New York City public advocate. Manhattan is the
most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and
administrative center, and the city's historical birthplace. Mayor de Blasio on
Friday refused to stay the execution of a deer that wandered into Manhattan —
saying it would be more humane to kill it because relocation would lead to a
long, traumatizing death. “There’s no other option,” the mayor insisted on WNYC
radio, rejecting Gov. Cuomo’s offer to try to safely relocate the deer. The
deer isn’t injured, but de Blasio said the process of moving it would be too
“traumatizing” and lead to “all sorts of extended pain” because the deer
wouldn’t be able to adapt to a new environment.

The animal-rights lovers were quick to blast the mayor. The one in news is a deer that swam across
the East River to Manhattan in a vain bid to find a mate and then was
living in a park in Harlem for weeks;
was given a reprieve from a death sentence. The wayward buck was set to be put to death
after galloping merrily for weeks around a housing complex. The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo,
tweeted : 'We want to do everything we can to save the deer. We have told the
city that the feds or we can transport it upstate today.' ; while reports suggested that the Mayor felt there
was 'no other option' but to euthanize the deer.

That was not to be a firm position
~ as the Mayor later relented. The deer was guessed to have swum across from
the Bronx, which is attached to the mainland. Some plans were on to transport
it to Newyork. The deer was first spotted
earlier this month in a copse in Jackie Robinson Park and has been living there
ever since. The State position was that euthanization was the preferred route, as it
was felt unsafe to relocate deer.

~ ~ ~ and ..
then the deer died, presumably due to
the considerable amount of stress it had experienced in a short period. The
preliminary causes of death, according to a New York City parks spokesman, were
stress and the day and a half that the deer spent at a city animal shelter in
East Harlem.

Now more people are talking
about the deer and the way it was treated !!!
- the East River is a salt water
tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river
despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island
Sound on its north end.